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Dinks

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Everything posted by Dinks

  1. Whilst your local garage may be quite happy to do you a certificate/letter for the headlights & speedo, Mercedes France homologation dept are very unlikely to accept it. They insist that the 'attestation' comes from a Mercedes concessionnaire. It's all bonkers anyway because, in our case, the van passed its CT which it can only do once the lamps have been changed anyway! As an update, Mercedes homologation very kindly emailed me back to confirm that it is not necessary to purchase the lamps directly from Mercedes, despite what Etoile Occitane told me. I have sent a recorded letter to the head man at the latter to complain, so will see what the result is. It's a painful process!
  2. Doh! So it is ;-) Don't you hate it when days all blur into one?!
  3. Many thanks for that. I have to say I was astounded when the bloke told me he had never been asked for such an attestation before and his boss then refused to give us one without an invoice from Mercedes for the lights! He refused to call the homologation department to clarify matters which was just plain ignorant. I'll call tomorrow & get the name of the Service Director and get a complaint letter off this week. Thanks again for the advice - much appreciated. Bonne soirée.
  4. It's the Etoile Occitane Mercedes dealer at Trèbes nr Carcassonne. We are in 09. I have sent a letter to the homologation department in Paris as I can't get them on the 'phone and they aren't answering my messages. Am I right in saying that we didn't have to purchase the lamps direct from Mercedes? The dealer was totally clueless!
  5. Over the past 4 years, we have registered an Opel and a Toyota in France, sans soucis. But Mercedes are proving problematic! We have a UK reg Mercedes Sprinter van that we need to transfer to French plates. But Mercedes will not issue a European cert of conformity without an attestation from a local dealer to confirm that the headlights 'conform to French road standards'. Of course we have changed the headlights and the van has passed its CT which is proof that the it is legal on French roads! But the CT does not suffice, oh no, an attestation is required Madame. Trouble is that our 'local' (3 hr round trip!) dealer hasn't got a clue and is insisting that we provide an invoice from Mercedes for the lights. We didn't buy them direct from Mercedes. I cannot get hold of the Mercedes homologation dept on the phone to resolve the issue so was just wondering whether anybody else has had this problem and how it was resolved? Grr!
  6. Thanks people. We have already had the full package done on the house that we are selling but a friend is now selling theirs privately & didn't think they needed the reports doing. I thought otherwise!
  7. Does anybody know whether the full 'diagnostiques' (inc. DPE) are required for a property that is only being marketed privately? Or are the reports required for ALL property sold in France whether through an agent or not?
  8. Thanks for that Anton. I'll check out Brico Depot near here
  9. We have so far been unable to find any earth clamps such as are used in the UK for crossbonding kitchen & bathroom pipes. Do they not exist in France? None of the brico outlets or specialist electrical shops seem to stock them. What do people use as an alternative? Thanks in advance?
  10. Depends how big a van/lorry you need. We had all of our stuff shipped down from S Yorkshire to the Ariege in a 3.5t vehicle (20m3 capacity) 4 years ago which cost us £1400.
  11. I can highly recommend milenlighthaulage.co.uk - they are based in France and did a great job of moving our house contents from Sheffield down here to the Ariege 4 years ago. Their fees are very reasonable and they were very efficient at every stage of the process.
  12. Thanks Chancer. The 'attestation d'identification' is the same as a 'certificat d'identification' .... yes? From DREAL.... "Ce n'est pas mon service qui délivre les certificat européen mais le constructeur du véhicule . Il faut vous adresser à Mercédes France pour  obtenir soit un certificat d'identification qui vous permettra d'aller directement en Préfecture pour avoir une carte grise française soit une attestation de conformité que vous joindrez au dossier".Hmm
  13. And it gets worse - for all those who reckon you can just 'turn up at your local DRIRE (now DREAL)' to get your hands on a cert of conformity, think again. My contact at DREAL Midi-Pyrenees has categorically told me in an email that you HAVE to get the C of C from the vehicle manufacturer. DRIRE/DREAL or whatever acronym you choose, do not issue them. Full stop. Great.
  14. Well, I can comfortably say that I am now banging my head against a brick wall. The prefecture wouldn't even look at the Type Approval Number on the V5 let alone tap the number into a computer. No manufacturer's c of c = no carte grise, madame. Now, I have successfully obtained a manufacturer's c of c for a Vauxhall and a Toyota over the past 2 years, but Mercedes are playing their own game. Despite sending them a copy of the van's cert de contrôle téchnique, they are insisting on an attestation from a Mercedes Benz garage/dealer to confirm that both the headlights and the speedometer conform to French road standards. I mean, FFS! We HAD to get the headlights changed for it to pass its CT and ALL vehicles have both kph and mph on the speedo do they not? Gah!
  15. Please give details of this 'new law' that you mention? Our UK regd van passed the CT just a week ago and no mention was made of the C of C which is a good job as we have still not received it from Mercedes.
  16. We have been trying to find somewhere down in 09 or online that sells material with which we can line the shower cubicle of the campervan that we are in the process of creating. It needs to be lightweight continuous sheeting rather than clip-together panels. Anybody got any ideas? Thanks
  17. Taa people. We managed to get all but one size of cable from Autodistribution Arnaudies Distributeur in Pamiers which looks like a handy spot to know about. We'll have a look at Vehicle Wiring Products tomorrow
  18. CAK Tanks is one of the companies that he got a lot of stuff from and agreed, they are excellent!
  19. Thanks for that Mr Driver, but the hubby actually drove back from the UK in the van with the majority of bits & pieces that we need, but the wire/cable that he was given was the wrong guage.It is that that we now urgently need to source.
  20. We are in the Ariège. A quantity of various sizes of electrical cable is top of our list at the moment.
  21. Does anybody know if such a thing exists in France? I am wanting to get hold of various stuff for our van which we are in the process of converting to a camper and am hoping to find it cheaper at a motor electrical factor than at Brico! Taa in advance
  22. The European Certificate of Conformity is a document that confirms that the vehicle complies with European manufacturing standards. It has nothing to do with which way the headlights point. The Type Approval number on the UK V5C is apparently supposed to be proof that that vehicle DOES comply with European manufacturing standards which should in theory negate the need for the C of C. I was just wondering whether many people have found this to be the case? I'd like to save some time and money if I can!
  23. Can somebody please confirm that if there is a Type Approval Number on the V5C, it is not necessary to go down the route of acquiring a certificate of conformity in order to get a UK vehicle registered in France? I have read that some Préféctures accept the entry on the log book as proof of conformity but others do not. We are bringing over a 2005 Mercedes Sprinter.
  24. I'm being a tad dim! The coude is female/female and not male/male!
  25. Thanks for the comments, all. Rather than a T, we have attached the burner to the downpipe via an elbow. It is a male to male fixation which is the only connection in black enamel that we found at Brico Depot in the 125mm size. It is the same type of fixing that was used on the previous woodburner (albeit that was an inoxy one) that was installed here and it worked no problem. I am at a loss as to why this black enamel one of the same size is not even close to fitting on the 125mm outlet pipe. We even bought a different, matt black enamel elbow from Mr Bricolage to see if it was any different and it wasn't. Very frustrating!
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